Heavy Duty is right about Hiland's book. I think it is one of the very best and most comprehensive on blues for bass guitar, including blues history, an explanation of various blues styles, exceptionally good explanation of the twelve bar blues and its variations, and the scales most useful for creating blues bass lines. Plus it comes with a CD, so you can hear the way the bass lines should sound or play along with the music passages in the book.

There are others also that are helpful. One is called "101 Blues Licks for Bass Guitar." That also comes with a CD. This book gives you a thorough foundation in the most common basic blues riffs. Once you learn them, you can vary them with your own tasteful additions and ideas. Also that book gives you turnarounds, intros and endings (as does Hiland's book.)

Let me suggest another type of book, too. One is "The Blues Fake Book" by Woody Mann. This has basic lyrics, treble clef notation and chords to over 200 blues "standards" which should be well known to blues bands.

Onother one is "The Definitive Blues Cllection" with 99 songs, all of which are part of a blues bassist's repertoire.

I have a couple of other blues instruction books, but I'd have to dig them out. Needless to say, the books above are the ones I've used most. In fact, they are dog eared, and tattered from use.

Oh, I have to add one more idea here. Roscoe Beck has made two really excellent blues instruction video tapes for Warner Brothers. He is an exceptionally good blues bassist and I learned so much from his videos.

Lastly, I'd add that you should try to listen to blues whenever you can so you can begin to internalize the "feel." Listen to everything from Stevie Ray Vaughan to Buddy Guy to Robert Johnson to the Allman Brothers to B.B.King to Junior Wells to Eric Clapton to Gary Moore to Kenny Wayne Shepard and many, many others. Learn how they differ; learn how they are similar. Most of all, pay attention to the bass.